Legacy of the Snow Crow

[Orlandu]

Ise Prakt had started up the Cold Climb curious, driven onwards through the biting cold by a sense of nostalgia and longing towards his homeland.

He had stormed back down in a murderous rage.

His chance encounter with Braghuru the Ice Hag had rekindled his longing for his beloved Isabel... As well as his bloodthirsty anger.

Power sourged relentlessly through his brutish husk, his sensations strenghtened even further by the blessings of Auril Braghuru had bestowed upon him as a departing gift, driving him into a mindless frenzy.

He had been idle for far too long...

He needed to kill again.

And soon.

[The Ice Hag]

Braghuru watched at the warrior trudged down the icy slopes, his blade held firmly in his grasp. She smiled to herself, her yellowed teeth dripping droplets of spittle on her chest.

"That one shall serve us well, his rage is strong, his hatred overwhelming."

The visage of a pale skinned woman shifted into view, standing only a few feet behind the hag. A cold smile crossed her deadened lips.

"Yesss."

The winds howled as the Snow Crow descended the mountain, murder dancing in his eyes.

[Orlandu]

Isabel had bit deep into the Illmatari priestesses' flesh.

Ise now sat licking her clean of the wretch's blood, producing a deep, guttural rumbling as he shuddered violently in ecstatic elevation.

The relentless calls of his brethren resounded throughout the mountains, a cacophany of starved wailing.

A lone scavenger broke from the steadily growing flock hovering not far above Ise, landing close by the dying fire, picking at the many scraps of bone and rotten hides littered about.

Ise spoke a word to it in it's language.

The young raven raised it's beak and tilted it's head to the side, ceasing it's fervent hunt for food, overcome by curiousity.

"You are hungry my brother..."

Ise whispered softly, calmly presenting his palm to the bird, and then slowly placing it on the snow before it.

"I will bring you plentiful supper..."

The young raven froze, peering at Ise for a moment, before trustingly hopping into his open hand.

Ise gently clasped his fingers around it's fragile legs, and raised his inquisitive brother to his own level.

The two stared silently into each other's eyes for a great while...

Until the raven could bare it no longer.

It exploded into panicked action, biting and picking at Ise's hand, frantically thrashing it's wings.

It had seen it.

The evil.

And now it was fighting for it's very life.

"I am the destroyer... The abominable... The 7 plagues..." Ise snarled in it's face.

"I am the crow that eats fear... Watch for me in the night!"

And then he released it.

Unharmed it bore the message to the others above.

[Orlandu]

Mossdale Forest.

The young man stumbled through the teacherous swamplands. Fatigue was getting the best of him, yet his pursuer seemed tireless in his chase.

He tripped over a rotten log and fell flat on his face in the mud. He rolled over as to face his hunter, panickingly crawling on his back to get further away from him.

It wasn't any use. He was right there. His mighty strides got him ever closer, and he wasn't even winded.

"W-what do you want from me?!" The youngster whimpered, tears streaming down his mud covered cheeks.

"I'm going to string you up by your entrails, whelp!" Ise spat his reply in disgust.

The youngster screamed his lungs out, but to no avail.

Ise now stood towering over him.

"Crows'll feast..." He snarled as he reached down and clasped the youngster's skull with his massive hands, applying bone-crushing pressure as if to break it.

The helpless youngster desperately pawed, scratched and struck at Ise, failing spectacularly at causing him any pain whatsoever.

When he could offer no more resistance, Ise let go of him, and he slumped to the ground in exhaustion.

Ise slowly ran Isabel across the boy's belly, and then lifted him a couple of feet off the ground by his throat... Grinning savagely in his dying face as he pulled at his innards, emptying his guts in front of his very eyes.

The young man now hangs from a choice tree by one of the pathways through the forest, tied at the neck with his own translucent entrails.

He's missing his hands, his eyes, his lips and his feet.